From their website, the Idaho Christians had big plans to ship Haitian orphans to the U.S.:

Seaside Villas at Playa Magante*: Villas for adopting parents to stay while fulfilling requirement for60‐90 day visit as well as Christian volunteers/vacationing families.• Provide opportunities for adoption through partnership with New Life Adoption Foundation which works with adoption agencies in the U.S. to help facilitate adoptions and provide grants to subsidize the cost of adoption for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt.• Seaside Café at Playa Magante*: small beachfront restaurant serving the community and adoptingparentsDirectors: Laura Silsby and Charisa CoulterInterim D.R. Address: Cabarete, DR Permanent DR Address: Playa Magante, DRU.S. Address: 1577 N. Linder Rd Kuna, ID 83634

The Philippines were really against allowing adoption by Americans, even of children who were obviously fathered by Americans, even by children mired in poverty, with medical issues that would not get addressed if they stayed in the PI. Instead, the children would stay with relatives who despised and resented them taking limited resources, food, from the children of the house. The fate of these children was never good, second class in a household or taken in by someone for the labor.

And the assumption was, it really was - if one talked to Filipinos and asked them, that children adopted to Americans would be treated the same way... second class in the household and used for labor. So the country wouldn't allow it, wouldn't allow the adoptions. But the country wasn't taking care of those children either. But much better not to admit that, to keep face.

When you can't feed your own children you may take in a niece or nephew out of obligation, but you will hate them for every bite of food they eat.

Check out the requirements for adoptive parents for a recognized adoption agency operating in Haiti, New Life Link:

Our adoptive familiesare made up of married couples with no children, families with children, single and divorced women, who believe that Jesus Christ is God, the Son of God the Father and the only Savior and Lord, and apart from Him, there is no salvation. Anybody who does not believe in and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, cannot adopt children from NLL.

We, ourselves at NLL, are committed Evangelical Born Again Baptist Christians. We do not discriminate against other Christian groups. However, we will not place our children with certain families who call themselves Christians. Therefore, we ask that all of our prospective adoptive families to be honest with us from the very beginning. We strongly suggest that no families start preparing their dossiers without having our approval. Please, do not assume that you will be approved to adopt from NLL, although we will happily and gratefully approve all qualified families who are biblically Christians.

Any persons or families who are: 1) Biblically Christians, 2) at least 33 years old ( for a married couple one of them has to be at least 35), 3) married for eight (8) years or more, are automatically qualified to adopt from our NEW LIFE LINK. For single women who are at least 30 years old, but who have a medical certificate stating that they are sterile, meaning they can never have children, they can adopt.

The odds that the Haitian kids or their parents are Evangelical Born Agan Baptist Christians are 1 in 10, according to the CIA's World Factbook. Haiti is 80% RC, 16% non-Catholic Christians, but 50% voodoo.

If they do need homes, what's the problem? This group is purposefully Christian in its outlook and function. Other groups also participate in placing children in adoptive homes. Any individual child will be placed in a home with a particular system of beliefs and with a particular family culture, but in aggregate there is still diversity.

So is the problem that *one* child will be placed in an evangelical Christian home and *no* children should be? Are you arguing that any adoptive homes should be the same as the birth family, religion-wise? So even Roman Catholics are out if they don't have the voodoo thing going on? People with weak or primarily social religious sentiments are certainly no more appropriate to adopt those children, and atheists or agnostics are completely out.

That is, if you're arguing that the adoptive homes have to reflect the birth families.

This particular group might be nut cases for all I know, but the arguments as to why they are nut cases don't make sense to me. Unless believing Christians simply make you uncomfortable?

But that's the next argument most of the time, isn't it? The next argument is generally a demand that Christian moralists actually *do* something for the children, such as adopt, or help out or send money, or try to do good in the world in a material way instead of just telling everyone else that they have to pop out another child every 12 months. Right?

In any case... I suppose I'm a bit wound up about this having run into someone claiming to be a Quaker (of all things) on another forum who actually came out and said that abortion was a moral answer to poverty in Haiti and elsewhere. Like drowning a little of puppies. (It actually brought up the puppies.) Troll? Maybe. Probably. A person can hope.

synova, imagine if this were a Muslim adoption agency, that took Catholic/voodoo kids and gave them only to devout Muslims who had made the hajj. Then you can appreciate how unreasonable the "New Life Link" people are being.

I'm the Biblest of Bible Christians, an RC as you say (my people determined what the Christian Scriptures were--all Christians rely on this moment of Catholic authority, despite their intense protestations).

NLL would probably discriminate against me because they don't believe RC's are Bible Christians according to their narrow definition.

If NLLers are adopting RC kids thinking they're saving the heathens, they should be disqualified for not recognizing the Christianity the children already possess.

Is that supposed to be a problematic idea? That Muslim adoption agencies might place children with devout and affluent Muslim families? (The hajj being an obligation only on Muslims who can afford it, I assume you mention that as a hypothetical filter for affluence.) I don't see the problem.